Neb Bukali, the president of El Salvador, said Friday morning on the Twitter community that serious steps have been taken toward bitcoin mining using geothermal and volcanic energy. The Central American country wrote about 0.00599179 bitcoin, or about $269, using Volcano. CNBC.

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– Are you watching???????? (@NS) October 1, 2021

The announcement came a few weeks after El Salvador became the first country to announce a legal tender for cryptocurrencies, a decision that many remain skeptical about. As part of the plan, the government has bought hundreds of bitcoins and launched its own national virtual wallet called “Chivo” – which means “awesome” in Salvadoran slang – offering free transactions and allowing fast cross-border payments.

On Tuesday, the president released a recording, which has since seen more than 2.4 million views, of crypto-mining equipment being installed with government vendors in a dense forest adjacent to the volcano.

First steps…

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– Are you watching???????? (@NS) September 28, 2021

If their plans come to fruition, the government has made good on its June promise to direct state-owned geothermal company LaGeot to make plans to mine bitcoin using volcanic geothermal energy.

She plays a major role

In addition to digital currencies, the decision could have a significant impact on geopolitics: El Salvador is on the edge of the Pacific “ring of fire” and VolcanoDiscovery.com It has 20 “potentially active” volcanoes. This is according to the International Trade Association, according to the country’s capacity they produce 21.7%, while in the case of the United States, together they represent only 12% of all renewable energy sources.

Although volcanic bitcoin mining has been around for some time — it has been used in Iceland since the advent of cryptocurrency — El Salvador’s efforts demonstrate that the technology has crucial advantages. They are less expensive than fossil alternatives, and building a volcanic power plant is very simple: a few large holes have to be drilled into the ground and then the heat generated is used to power the turbines.

The country’s huge volcanic resource has so far failed to benefit significantly due to technological limitations, but if energy becomes portable, Bitcoin may be able to improve the economic situation for many countries where renewables are untapped, he writes. CoinDesk.

They add that neighboring communities can also benefit from newly established volcanic energy production, as well as new industries can develop thanks to renewable resources.